Telling the Delhi Rape Story on Stage

The thing that angered Indian actor Poorna Jagannathan about the Delhi gang rape on Dec. 16, 2012, aside from the violent actions of the group of men found guilty of the attack, was the inaction of those who failed to help the naked and bleeding couple after they’d been dumped from the bus at the side of the road.

“Yes, I was angry against the six rapists,” says Ms. Jagannathan, who has staged an award-winning play inspired by events following the fatal gang rape of a young woman in Delhi last year. “But my anger was also against every person who didn’t stop for her when she was thrown out of the bus, the policemen who didn’t help, and everyone else who failed to live up to their duties and responsibilities,” she said.

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Ms. Jagannathan’s play, “Nirbhaya,” the name given to the victim of the Delhi rape by Indian media and adopted by women’s rights groups when describing her, was conceived in part in response to that apathy, and in part as an acknowledgement of her own passive complicity in violence against women, including against herself, she says.

“I was angry for all the years of silence I had maintained regarding the sexual harassment I had gone through,” Ms. Jagannathan said. “This is why I chose to stand up this time and break this silence this time around. I also wanted to tell each and every individual of this country that we must learn to stand up for ourselves.”

“Nirbhaya” will open in Delhi in the New Year, following an award-winning run at the Edinburgh Fringe Festival in the U.K. over the summer.

Ms. Jagannathan’s decision to write the play was also inspired by a performance she saw in New York, almost seven years ago, of Yael Farber’s “Amajuba” a testimonial play about post-apartheid South Africa. “When I watched it, I was mesmerized with the way Yael made her actors bare their thoughts completely. It impacted my psyche and it stayed with me,” she said.

She kept in touch with Ms. Farber and thought of her immediately when looking for someone to script the play about Dec. 16. “I knew Yael would be the best person to do this,” she said.

The pair connected about the Delhi rape on Facebook and Ms. Jagannathan expressed her concern about sexual violence and her interest in staging a play. Ms. Farber caught a flight and came to India.

By the time she landed, the playwright had a definite idea of how to go about doing the play, says Ms. Jagannathan, who added her contributions and soon they had sketched out a complete plan.

The work centers on the real-life experiences of four of the actors in the play and Nirbhaya’s story. Ms. Jagannathan and Ms. Farber cast for actors on Facebook. Seven performers were selected and Japjit Kaur was chosen to play the gang-rape victim. Ankur Vikal, who starred in the Oscar-winning movie Slumdog Millionaire, playsa number of roles including molester, husband, and supporter.

Other actors, such as Sapna Bhavnani, Priyanka Bose, Sneha Javale, and Ms. Jagannathan herself, speak about their personal experiences of sexual violence and harassment throughout the play.

Their stories range from being doused with kerosene, to molestation by a relative. Most were bitter personal recollections. “Yael [Farber] conducted workshops with us to make us comfortable to share our own experiences. One story at a time was taken and dealt with. It wasn’t easy, because these were stories which most of us had buried in our subconscious,” Ms. Jagannathan said.

The play was performed for the first time at the Fringe Festival in July. “The response was overwhelming from the crowd. It was heartening to see people waiting to meet us, after the shows were over. They even shared their own stories and some of them thanked us for our courage and for showing them the way to break their silence,” said Ms. Jagannathan.

In Edinburgh, they won three awards for the piece: The Amnesty International Freedom of Expression Award, The Scotsman’s Fringe First Award and the Herald Angel Award.

Despite the accolades, the group is still nervous about how people in India will react to the show, Ms. Jagannathan says. Funding has also been an issue.

After 32 shows in theU.K., the group resorted to crowd funding through New York-based Kickstarter, an online crowd sourcing website. Their campaign, which started in October, reached the goal of £50,000 ($81,690) on Nov. 20.

“With this money, we plan to have shows in Delhi, Mumbai, Chennai, Bangalore and Kolkata. If the amount increases, we would like to add another city as well,” Ms. Jagannathan said. The group also hopes to perform in colleges across India.”

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